


Selab

by frangipani



Series: Halloween [4]
Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood Is the New Black, Canon Atypical Violence, Gen, Halloween Challenge, Kyle Katarn is basically my OC, Meat Cute, Monster mash, but i have a messed up sense of humor, feel good violence, frangi writes derivative shit, guess the homage, is Katarn Force sensitive?, is there a command?, let's talk because I lol'ed, no you don't get points it's fucking obvious, sorry Kyle Katarn fandom, this is not shipping but..., who knows let's kill monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 14:30:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16199444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frangipani/pseuds/frangipani
Summary: After surviving a mysterious attack, Mara Jade, inmate at The Cage, an Imperial prison deep in the icy Rylothian Shadowlands, awaits the next supply freighter.





	Selab

**Author's Note:**

> Do check the tags, and read at your own discretion. This is Halloween Challenge #2. My thanks as always to [strangeallure](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangeallure/pseuds/strangeallure) who is battling with me in making lightly edited, half coherent Halloween content. Half of the tags above are hers as is any sense making in the mash below. Onward, hoe! ;-)
> 
> Mini playlist [here](http://teagrl.tumblr.com/post/178854629832/music-to-kill-monsters-to-a-selab-mini).

5ABY

Mara turned on the glow rod as she navigated the industrial sized kitchen. True illumination lit her path, and she could almost ignore that strobe-like flickering of the lights. She opted against them and hit the off switch as soon as she reached the room’s control panel, then continued on to the walk-in conserv.

Blood had dried, or rather, frozen on the walls, but the debris of dishes and pots, utensils, and other cookware still lay strewn across the room occasionally interspersed with bits of torn fabric, mostly the bright yellow from the thick inmate’s coverall Mara used to wear, garish by glow rod light. Occasionally, her eye slid over the black of a guard’s bulky jumpsuit, more familiar now. Guard uniforms, she’d discovered, were warmer.

Debris crunched underfoot, no matter how carefully she tried to make her way through the room. Her breath vapored in the air.

Mara could have taken the droids in the prison and put them to work on the mess, but she’d opted to cannibalize them for their batteries in case the worst should happen. She wasn’t exactly sure how much life the complex’s power supply had, and heat was already an issue. That along with what else would run out, and what had already run out were the kinds of thoughts that kept her full of restless energy. The perishables had been the first to go though they lasted a good while, considering the freezing temperature of the facility now that the heat was touch and go. She still had, by her estimate, a couple year’s worth of protein paste and dristarch.

Mara went into the walk-in conserv and pulled the supply towards her now pointing the glow rod into the container to look into it. She’d lost one to some weevil-like insects -- mystifying in this cold, and had taken to storing them in the conserv.

She scooped up her dristarch with the bowl she was going to use, and grabbed a frozen pack of protein paste from beside the dristarch, and exited the conserv. Back at the kitchen she went to the usual open space at one of the work areas. There, she put the protein paste on the counter and used her handheld ice saw to cut out a cube out of the slab. She’d considered using her lightsaber when she’d first started, but it was just too awkward to use. The saw, on the other hand, was as long as her hand with a battery operated blade, given how much frozen material Mara went through now that the heat had nearly failed, it had turned into a surprising useful tool.

Mara stuck the bowl into one of the pulse ovens. The oven didn’t turn on. She slapped it until it did.

After, she grabbed the smoking bowl and went up the stairs. The second and third levels were arranged in a circle that overlooked the cafeteria. Mara glanced down once she reached the second level. Dark streaks lingered on the on the cafeteria’s ground under the flipped tables and mashed up chairs, visible from here by the flickering lights of the lower levels. The lights on this level flickered on and off like they did so everywhere. Clearly, a large scale power problem, same reason every damn piece of machinery short of the terminal in the control tower barely worked.

Mara continued walking to the next set of stairs. The stairs at each level were not only open, but spiraled up. Walking away from the stairs you would arrive at the cells and lounge areas that made up the inmate’s living spaces. The guards’ own living spaces were on the fourth level, sealed off through several blastdoors.

Inmates never went past the third level and the facility, a round four-storied duracrete building, wasn’t that large. It tapered off to a tower, reachable through the turbolifts or stairs at the fourth level. Those were the ones Mara took now. She walked through the open blastdoors, and hit the access panel. The inner door of the control room opened with a hiss, its warmth the most welcoming this by far in this frozen hellscape. As far as she could tell the control’s power was routed from a different area in the grid, and it’s lights and heat were at full power. Mara conserved the rooms power by using portable heating units she tried to ration. The size of the room compared to the open areas of the facility meant that power here was more readily conserved.

Mara went to sit at the chair in front of the various screens, showing various flickering areas of the first, second, and third levels. She barely looked at those, though she hadn’t gone as far as to shut them off. Most of the time, her eyes were drawn forward through the transparisteel viewport to the floodlights that haphazardly illuminated the courtyard, also subject to the same power fluctuations as the rest of the building. The floodlights shone intermittently all around the prison, before drowning in the dark of the rest of the canyon.

 _Courtyard_ , was too pleasant a name for that barren frozen field, Mara thought. The duracrete wall that encircled the whole of the grounds blocked it off from the rest of the wide valley. The massive cliffsides made it so that it’d always been dark in Selab, even before they’d been attacked.

Mara hadn’t understood the necessity for walls. The main fencing, to her thinking, was provided by spacescraper-tall cliffsides that at either side of the facility and the fact that no one liked being out in minus zero degree weather that long anyway. A night full of thumping and screaming had given her a new understanding. When she’d made her way out from the basement level a full day of silence later and looked at the walls again they’d reminded her of rotted teeth, broken and uneven.

Since then Mara had spent most of her time here in the tower, fiddling with the transceiver there and looking to the snowy canyons that surrounded the facility. Apart from the depth in the canyons, the inhospitable weather above affected comms a great deal. While not as violent as the storms near the the inhabited part of the planet, the gale-force winds stretched from here to the upper atmosphere.

Mara placed her meal on the console and idly, switched the channel on the transceiver, listened for a few seconds. She switched to another channel, and did the same. Grabbing her bowl, she reached for a spoon in a crate of personal effects she kept beside the chair. She was stirring the stew when she thought she head thin sounds from the transceiver. She stopped stirring.

This wasn’t a new occurrence. From time to time, she’d thought she’d heard some distant voices on a channel. She couldn’t be sure. It’d been a couple of months since she’d heard a sentient voice.

Which, if her training was to be believed meant she was in about the right time to hallucinate them.

That thought unsettled her enough to turn, plate of dristarch stew in hand, and call up to the delivery schedule for the millionth time. She leaned back a little on the chair.

Already past two weeks late. The Imperial supply freighter should have been here with more food, batteries, and personnel. Mara didn’t want to think about the eventuality of it never arriving. She didn’t know if the wardens had sent out some sort of distress signal. But surely if they had, _someone_ would have come, if anything to close down the place.

“Se-- Im--ial Pri--,” a voice came loudly through the transceiver, making her sit up. “--- in Se--”

Mara jerked towards the comm, putting her bowl down. “This is Selab Imperial Prison.” She couldn’t keep the enthusiasm out of her voice. “It took you long--”

“--lab Im--ial Pri-- New Rep -- Tran--rt. We -- on behalf of the New -- immed -- lease and -- turn -- prison-- of war.”

She looked at the transceiver, mystified. “Your comms are breaking up.” 

“Repeat -- peror -- de-- an-- Ry-- has-- rated --free -- Comply -- peacefully --no harml -- you.”

That barely made sense. She squinted but couldn’t see anything but dark past the courtyard. They must be a ways of still. Didn’t sound like a supply ship either. Okay. It didn’t matter. She’d adapt and figure things out once she got off this forsaken planet. The immediate goal was that.

“Se --”

Mara hit the transmit switch again. “There was ah...an accident. We are in need of aid.”

“--acci---? Wha--”

Mara wondered if it was wise to say more. If they decided to throw a baradium missile at the place from above that wouldn’t help her any.

“-- survivors?”

“Yes,” she answered simply. Good okay. It had been a good idea to let them know.

“-- many--es--mate?”

“Yes.” She’d be stupid to say only her. “You’re breaking up.” 

“All -- sen -- a -- team -- the-- rtly.”

“Copy. Please hurry,” she couldn’t help but say. Mara looked beyond the courtyard again. If they asked for survivors that meant they were coming. They’d mentioned a _team_. She was getting on whatever could take her back to civilization. It didn’t matter what it was or what it had come for.

Eyes on the darkened masses of the canyons at either side of her, Mara thought this was it. She wouldn't dream of wandering out in the cold barrens where presumably whatever had picked the prison clean was. Mara didn’t know what it had been. There’d been plenty of blood everywhere, but no bodies. 

The last on its own shouldn’t be surprising. Ryloth’s efficient predators had been a common enough subject of conversation among the inmates, back when there were inmates. A couple of the scumbags liked to philosophically meander about lyleks -- the large insectoid predators with spiked pincers and strong mandibles that wandered around the day side of Ryloth-- as masterful killers. Someone in the prison miscalculated on something and something just as bad must have gorged themselves here. Mara didn’t know what the mistake was.

Those were the kinds of thoughts to drive you crazy.

Mara finished her meal hurriedly. It'd been a long time since Mara thought of where she was as _Ryloth_. At one time, the name of this Imperial protectorate would have conjured dancing girls and even more exotic floating rock gardens. The truth was that the planet was a playball of the tidal effects of the five moons orbiting around it, so everything worth noting was found at the equatorial region of the planet, the only sliver of normalcy between the icy tundra where Selab Imperial Prison stood and the blistering desert opposite it. 

Deep into the night side, snowy inhospitable wastes around it and surrounded by massive icy cliffs, Selab might as well be on another planet entirely. The inmates had called it ‘The Cage’.

Something truly special, Iceheart had said long ago. Just for Mara.

\--

Mara all but dove down the stairs from the tower to the nearest laundry area on the first floor to change back into a prisoner’s coverall, ripping the identification number from it. She didn’t know who was coming, but it was safer to play a prisoner. There were datafiles on her circulating now; it was best to get oriented before she decided what path to take. She did compromise on a guard’s coat to put over herself.

Mara made sure to grab several knives, a basic blaster, and a set of hand tools while she waited. She packed her lightsaber, making sure it was well within the coat and away from view. Getting it had been the first thing she'd done after getting out of the cell at the sub-basement level to find herself alone, curdling blood at her feet.

Being busy grabbing tools, she didn't see the shuttle land. She heard it in a tortuous scrape of metal that made the prison shake.

Heart in her throat, Mara rushed out into the back area of he facility, trudging through the snow as she pulled the thick hood over her face. The icy wind still stung her cheeks and she rubbed her gloved hands. 

Smoke wafted from the rear of the craft. Mara froze as the team walked out.

A man and...an alien? A Barabel -- a towering reptilian biped with scaly skin and a thick tail Mara instinctively took a step back. Both had casual sidearms and repeater blasters slung on their backs. They had the look of a mercenaries, except for the Free Ryloth symbol attached to their heavy jacket sleeves and just under it, another symbol. A red firebird. The Rebel symbol.

Rebels.

Her brain clipped back. Prisoners. The transmission mentioned something about prisoners.

“Who are you?” the man called, scanning her with a clinical eye.

“Inmate number three two four four.” She paused. “Claria Jansih.”

The calculating look didn’t lift. “Kyle Katarn. This is Duar.” He gestured to the Barabel who made a curt nod. “An accident you said? Where’s the rest of you?”

Mara licked her lips. “There’s ah, just me.”

He squinted at the rubble of the walls and the debris around the yard as the wind gusted up the snow, making hazy shapes by the shuttle lights. “You’re serious? What the kriff happened here?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Lylek attack,” the Barabel offered. 

“They don't come here,” he replied. “Too kriffing cold.” He flashed Mara a narrow look. “How come you don't know?”

“Lock down.”

The look got even narrower. “Solitary.”

She nodded. 

Katarn didn't look convinced, but the Barabel beside him slapped his shoulder. “Let us hurry. The commander said the weather will become more inclement the longer we wait.”

Reluctantly, he nodded. “All right Jansih, this is your lucky day. We’ll be clearing you out, and you can tell the commander your story. But first we’re going to want to look at the prison’s main terminal while our pilot makes some fixes.”

Mara looked over his shoulder towards the shuttle. She wasn’t telling anyone anything. She was getting off this planet. But Selab had taught her a few things about playing along.

“Yeah,” he continued catching her look, “we took a beating coming down. Nothing she can’t fix.But we need to get to that mainframe. You think you can take us there?”

Mara nodded. “Sure,” she said, turning around and sweeping her arm out obsequiously. “I’ll give you the grand tour.” 

\--

“Power’s obviously an issue,” she told them as they walked in through the main level through the laundry, past the kitchen to the cafeteria. Mara had turned on her glow rod for extra illumination, and both Katarn and the Barabel had done the same with theirs. “Whatever smashed through the walls and made off with everyone also hit the power grid first. It’s still up.” She raised a hand to the flickering lights. “Just...flighty.”

“Heat too?” Katarn asked. 

“Yeah,” she picked off the question of how she lived here, “I found a couple of portable heating sets to make it cozy.”

“A few degrees under freezing,” the Barabel said matter of factly.

“Like I said. Cozy,” Mara blurted out before she thought about it. Maybe she should have. Barabels were ill-tempered, easily offended and violent.

But Duar sissed and Mara had the impression she was amused. “You were not scared whatever it was would return?”

Of course she was scared. She slept every night with the lightsaber beside her, the blastdoor to the tower rigged up, her sleep broken into countless nightmares of the thumping and screeching she’d heard through the walls. 

Mara shrugged. “Seems like whatever came ate itself sick. Hopefully it’s having a nice long nap.”

For a while they trudged on in silence. 

“What did they grab you for, Jansih?” Katarn asked as they went up the stairs to the control tower.

She’d given this story hundreds of times within these walls. “Smuggling.”

He followed that up with “Big fish or little fish?”

She hated that question.

“Big fish.”

“Who?”

Lies were served best with a grain of truth. “Black Nebula.” The Barabel’s scales rose, her tongue flickering. It was the organization Mara was most familiar with, even if for the opposite reasons this Rebel soldier thought. 

She added, glancing at Duar, “I learned my lesson, okay? Not gonna do it again.” By then they’d arrived at the control room.

Katarn took one long look at the room, the makeshift cot at the end of it surrounded by two portable heating units and a couple of water bottles, the crate beside the chair. “This your room too?”

“Best view in the house.” Mara gestured to the transparisteel viewport. “There’s a good blastdoor to rig shut, power’s stable, and then there’s the transceiver. I’ve been trying to reach someone, anyone for a while.”

His eye landed on the open delivery schedule on the screen. “You didn’t expect us.”

“Expected them,” Mara told him, a bit uneasy. Maybe she shouldn’t have left it open. “We’re due for a delivery.”

“They’re not going to come,” he told her tonelessly without looking up from the terminal.

Mara snorted. “Just can’t get good service these days.”

“No,” Katarn grabbed the chair, sat in the terminal, and started inputting commands, “especially considering that there is no Empire. All that shipping is off to the Borderlands.”

Mara frowned at him. “I know the Emperor is gone…”

“Coruscant was liberated just a few months ago,” Duar supplied. “New government. Official now.”

“You don’t say,” Mara mumbled, her mind stalling on the fact. Coruscant had fallen? To the Rebels? 

“Ryloth is now independent as well. We have come to tracking down prisoners of war,” Durar continued. “What happened here is...unfortunate. Did you know of an inmate by the name of Sirat?”

Mara shook her head. She’d never developed rapport with the rest of the inmates, a motley assortment of criminals of various stripes and humanoid species from the truly violent to those here for rabble-rousing. Being here out of someone’s personal vendetta felt different from all of that. 

Different enough that all she thought as she went over the knowledge that Coruscant had fallen was, _Oh I wish that degenerate bitch is still alive_.

Let Isard be alive.

Alive so I can smear her across the walls.

“Got it,” Katarn’s voice broke through her thoughts. He fished out a cube from his pocket and inserted it into the dataport. “Names and locations. The Empire centralized everything.” Mara glimpsed a list of names on the screen. “Sirat is in a facility over at the Bryx sector. Ring a bell?” he turned his head to Duar, who shook hers. “Well, it should be familiar to someone. We’re done here.” He stood, glancing at Mara. “You got everything you need?”

She nodded and they started walking down. Katarn walking ahead out of the command center and down the stairs, his glow rod back in hand.

“Who’s this Sirat?” Mara asked Duar who walked beside her. 

“My hatchmate. He was taken while on a mission.” A hint of pain simmered under the Barabel’s words. “He’s strong, the Empire likes the strong for labor.”

Ah labor camps. She supposed that was true. Unless he’d been unruly and had to be put down, but she wasn’t about to say that. 

“Lucky,” she replied instead. They had just come to the landing and had to emerge to the fourth level's living space to descend to the third. “To have you looking for him.”

“Nobody is looking for you, Claria Jansih?” Duara asked, cocking her head.

She felt a slight pang, but forced herself to smirk at the Barabel. “They better not be. I’m not paying anyone a damn credit after this.”

“Wait,” the Barabel said suddenly, her tongue darting out as she . Katarn had also stopped midway down the third level stairs. 

“Yeah. Something’s here,” he replied quietly.

Mara felt a different kind of chill, a prickling sensation in her mind she knew well. She had her blaster instantly in her hand. Duar, too, had reached for her rifle.

They needed to keep going though. They were already halfway down.

Katarn and Duar tacitly agreed and started moving again, albeit more slowly, Duar moving in front of Mara. They reached the foot of the stairs towards the second level overlooking the cafeteria. Duar’s head moved side to side as she scanned.

Something _was_ there. Mara had no doubt. 

Duar sniffed softly. “Smells like --”

“There!” Katarn screamed as a huge black, vaguely arachnid figure emerged from the landing. He brought his glowrod up and the creature skittered down a couple of steps but reared back up with its front legs. Katarn fell back and Mara lost him.

Mara clipped off two shots, retreating two steps up. Duar stayed where she was to Mara’s lower left, her repeater blaster letting loose a near continuous stream of fire that lit up the stairs. A high, whirring screech split through the air. Another flash of repeater fire.

All was silent. 

“Katarn?” Duar called. 

“Yeah,” he called from several steps below them, nearer to the foot of the stairs. “It landed here. Looks like a lylek.” He must have looped behind the thing as she and Duar were shooting at it. Not the safest thing to do.

“You said it’s too cold for lyleks here,” Mara called out, her voice sounding shaky enough to make her grimace.

“It’s not exactly a lylek if you look,” he answered as she neared. 

“That’s okay,” she replied, moving quickly past its dead carcass. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“It iz a little smaller,” Duar said, evaluative. She stopped beside Katarn lifting her own glow rod for a closer look. “Lacking the two front tentaclez.”

“Where’d it come from?” Mara whispered, cold washing over her. Had it been here all this time? _Waiting_? “Are there more? I haven’t seen any.” 

“You’re sure?” Katarn’s voice was edged, but he crept forward towards the next spiraling stairs down.

“I would remember something like that coming at me,” she hissed, Duar stepping past her. 

“Could have been a scout of some sort. Or lost,” the Barabel suggested.

Katarn let out a grunt just a few shades short of dismissive. “Something like this doesn’t look big enough to bring down the walls and kill the entire prison population,” he mused to Duar as they continued down to the first level. He looked over at Mara. “You really didn’t see it happen?”

“I told you, I was in locked down. The sub-basement. The locking mechanism runs on the regular power grid, when it got hit, I got out and saw the mess.”

Mara didn’t have to see his face to know he wasn’t satisfied. He kept going through. They were now on the main level, just behind the cafeteria.

“What’d they put you in lockdown for anyway?”

She’d anticipated that question. “Sometimes guards get offended when told to keep their hands to themselves. Then accidents happen. A couple of them tripped and took a bad fall from the second level.”

It wasn’t a _complete_ lie. 

Katarn didn’t reply and they cautiously filtered into the cafeteria.

“The flickering lights are giving me a headache,” he muttered. 

Turbolaser fire rang out from outside.

“Miksval!” Duar hissed.

“Well that answers that,” Katarn whispered furiously as the cannons roared outside. “We did get a straggler. They’re outside.”

“How are we getting to the shuttle now?” Mara stopped and craned her head to see if she could catch a glimpse through the high transparisteel windows. Nothing but flashing light.

“Miksval will clear a path,” Duar said in front of her. “Keep moving.” 

They were midway through the cafeteria when another one of the creatures seemed to fly at them out of nowhere, landing on Duar. The rifle clattered to the ground, somewhere under a table.

Mara aimed in Duar and the creature’s direction, only to dart away from a shadow at her peripheral vision, tripping on a chair as she did. She landed in time to roll out of the way of a dark pincer shooting towards her, losing her glow rod in the process. She scrambled to her feet while she pulled the trigger, putting a table between her and the creature. The air was full of insect chittering alternating with the rapid shots of a repeater, and the sound of debris being tossed about.

The enormous insect had jumped on the table and Mara fell back, cursing. Her bolts kept bouncing off the creature’s exoskeleton. She had to cede ground as the creature just continued its approach, climbing down towards her. Mara ducked to avoid the lash of the creature’s legs at her shoulder. Its head shot forward, mandibles clicking. 

A repeater’s _blat-blat-blat_ , louder than she’d heard it, sticky liquid splashed onto Mara’s side. Mandibles landed on the floor with a squelching thump.

Mara turned her head to the Barabel. 

“Thanks,” she panted. 

Duar nodded and lifted her head. “Katarn?” she called.

“Over here,” he called from the other side of the cafeteria. 

Mara gave quick scans all around the room. In the flickering lights, every single shadows appeared to be moving. “They know we’re here now.”

Duar nodded her head. “Miksal should have completed her repairz.” 

Another figure peeled itself from the shadows, towards them, and Mara cried out, “Behind you!” 

Duar turned. Too late. The creature’s pincer stabbed down at Duar’s tail, the Barabel letting out a cry of surprise as she faced the creature.

Mara raised her blaster, letting out a volley of shots, all useless, and she was forced to back away as the creature chittered. Incredibly Duar had moved towards the creature, who still had her tail, lashing at it while snarling. Now Mara _couldn’t_ shoot -- even if the bolts did anything to that thing -- not without risking harming Duar. Then with a wet crack, Duar stepped back...without her tail.

The creature had torn out Duar’s tail, Mara thought, taking a shot as soon as it was clear, and another. She expected Duar to fall, but the Barabel turned, claws extended, and grabbed hold of the creature’s head, slamming it against the duracrete. The creature let out a high pitched screech and collapsed, its head in Duar’s clawed hands.

“Lylekz,” Duar tilted her head at the mandible in her clawed hands, “make good prey.”

Mara rubbed her face, grimaced at the stickiness on her before she examined Duar.. “Your tail.” She looked over at the appendage beside the dead creature. 

“Ah,” Duar explained in no apparent pain, “it can be left behind.”

Mara’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s uh, convenient.”

“Yez. Good to --”

Mara felt the warning of course, but by then the creature was too close. The pincer would have gone through her side piercing her heart. But she only felt herself grabbed and weightless for an instant. Her side hit the duracrete first, a blow to knock the wind out of her. 

The lightsaber rolled out.

She automatically reached for it, picked it up as she rose towards the noise in front of her. 

The creature had pierced Duar with one of its pincers, its mandibles clacking over her, yelling as the Barabel pushed them off, thrashing. The creature lifted another pincer. 

Dimly, Mara heard Katarn yell and his own blaster fire. Mara extended her hand, activating her blade, and sweeping it through the lifted pincer. The creature let out a hissing screech. Its tail stabbed down a second before Mara’s blade returned, severing it as Duar kicked its torso off of her. 

A tingle in her head and another flash of movement from the corner of her eye. Mara whirled. The creature slammed into Mara’s shoulder. 

_Blat-blat-blat_ echoed loudly as Mara hit the duracrete. Ear piercingly loud screeching saturated the air.

In the resulting stillness, all Mara could think was that her shoulder fucking hurt. 

She righted herself, the burst of pain leveling out to a throb as she sat up.

A couple of paces away, she saw Katarn’s form flashing in and out in the strobing lights, crouching by Duar.

Dazed, Mara thought, they’re taking too long. She inhaled, over the pounding of her heart, and lurched to her feet. Katarn looked back to her, but his gaze stopped several feet short. Her lightsaber.

His face darkened, and Mara dove towards it. Katarn’s hand closed on it a second before she reached it. He drew it away, and then he was dragging her back behind some fallen tables, Mara letting out a yelp as her shoulder protested the dig of his fingers. His blaster ended up jammed hard against the back of her skull.

“You’re going to tell me exactly who and what you are.”

“How is Duar?” Mara asked.

The barest fraction of a pause. “Dead.”

Mara shut her eyes tight. 

“Claria Jansih is not your name.”

Mara didn’t dare move. “You’re wasting time.”

He shook her a little. “You’re not a smuggler either. You weren’t in any of the prison files.”

He’d looked her up? At the terminal? Over the outage she blurted out, “At any moment, those things are going to attack again. We have to go.”

“How do I know this isn’t a set-up? The commander runs into them all the time. I knew--” Katarn stopped and started over. “Where did you get the glowstick?”

“It was given to me!”

“By who?”

Don’t make me say it, she thought. “This is not a set-up! I just need to get out.”

“You’re an Imperial.” It wasn’t a question. He shook her again, her shoulder making her let out a pained grunt.

“I’ve been in The Cage for a year! Before that...y-yes. But I -- my existence was found to be -- to be objectionable by Director Isard.”

“Ysanne Isard. ISB.”

Mara nodded jerkily. “She sent me here. I’m not part of the Empire anymore. I just want to get off this planet. It’s not a set-up, and I’m sorry about your team member. She...saved my life. But we'll die here if we don’t go.”

The blaster muzzle was bruising against her skull, but she felt her words landing. “I'm not your wet-behind-the-ears idealist,” he growled. “One wrong move and I'm leaving you as the next meal for those things. Got it?”

She nodded.

“Your name? Your real one.”

“Jansih is my real one.”

She felt the flick of Katarn's wrist and then the heat of a blaster bolt singed her ear as Katarn shot a few centimeters beside her head. 

“Jade! Mara Jade!”

He roughly hauled her up. Through the windows, Mara could see a darkened mass moving across the snow, intermittently lit by turbolaser fire. 

“Looks like Miksval is covering.”

Mara was transfixed by the shadowy wave. “What the kriff,” she whispered.

“Drawn to heat sources,” he said grimly. “All sort of winter creatures are. Trade-offs. I assume they're not fans of the lighting...”

With a flash of epiphany Mara blurted out, “There was a power outage. I thought...” She remembered the lights turning off in her cell. It’d been a relief when they’d come back on about a minute later. In all the shaking and screaming that followed, she’d simply thought it’d _been_ the attack.

It’d been the precursor.

To her surprise, Katarn nodded. “About a month ago? CME. Big one. Lessu’s comsats are still not at a hundred percent.”

A coronary mass ejection -- a solar flare from Ryloth's poisonous sun. 

“Take the lights away and they have no deterrent to go for the heat,” he muttered. “No one had a fighting chance. Explains the blasted flickering. Whole place is running on back-ups. You’re lucky it didn’t fail outright. Imperial efficiency at its best. Let’s go.” He made for the door.

Mara set her jaw. “Give me my lightsaber back.”

He passed her a skeptical look. “So you can stab me in the back with it?”

“I told you,” Mara said from between clenched teeth. “This is not a set-up. I could have shot you at any point if it were.”

He laughed humorlessly. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

“My blaster doesn’t do shavit against those things!”

“Better stay close then.”

Kriffing asshole, Mara thought, but had no choice but to follow. The wing whipped around them, wind biting at her skin as they left the main building. Mara shivered. Smoking carcass after carcass of these smaller lyleks obstructed their way enough of them that their path zigzagged. 

Again Mara felt a tingle of alarm--

In front of them, the shuttle’s laser cannons sparked to life.

“Get down!” Katarn screamed. Mara was halfway there. The powerful blast roared above them, loud enough to drown out all other sound. Heat radiated over her. She felt herself yanked to crawl forward by Katarn, covering the next few paces that way as the shuttle’s laser cannons spat fire. He pulled her behind some of the creature’s bodies, breathing hard.

Mara snuck a peek to where darkened arthropodal figures had stopped their approach. The ship. 

Her danger sense screamed, and Mara found herself jumping away as a pincer jabbed down, stabbing through the shoulder of the jacket. She squirmed out of it, scooting away from under the creature’s thorax. A repeater’s _blat-blat-blat_ thundered, mingled with screeching, and a gush of sticky liquid splashed the side of Mara’s face.

When she opened her eyes, wiping roughly at her face, she saw the creatures prone on the snow just a few paces from her on top of her jacket.

Kriff.

But Katarn was frantically gesturing her forward. “Go!”

“My lightsaber!” she yelled over the wind. 

“You can ask the commander for it later!” he screamed back.

Mara grunted in frustration, ignoring the cold seeping through the inmate coveralls. “You’re going to get me--”

Something hit her shoulder hard. Mara was on the snow, ignoring the pain exploding from her already wounded shoulder as she scrambled away from another pincer. The laser cannon had come to life again, but it’s shots sounded too far. 

Another pincer came down, Mara leaping to her feet, her hands scrabbling for her knife. Katarn’s repeater blasted a few paces from her. Mandibles came forward, calling her attention to evading them. Only so much you could do while avoiding being skewered.

“Lower body!” she heard Katarn scream. “The carapace is weaker there!”

Options being slim, Mara slid forward the next time the creature lashed at her with its pincer, jumped and thrust her knife up. The creature screeched. Mara rolled out from under it in time to see it lurch sideways, insect ichor spraying out.

Warning shot through her and she ducked down in time to hear the repeater fire. The creature let out the typical screech before falling on its side away from Mara. It thudded softly in the snow.

“It could have killed me,” she spat at Katarn as soon as she stood. “Give me my kriffing lightsaber!”

He kept walking.

“Hey!” she shouted as she caught up to him.

Katarn didn’t reply. Mara thought she heard chittering and stopped. Katarn had frozen beside her in the same instant. 

He gestured to another mound of dead arthropods. Mara squinted. More of them had moved in front of the shuttle. She could hear them chittering.

Katarn swore beside her. “They’re too close for the shuttle lasers to get at.”

“Your pilot better think of something! We can’t tackle ten of those things at once. Maybe she can lift off and clear the area for us?”

“With the weather here, if the shuttle lifts off, I want to be on it.” He laughed grimly. “Looks like we’re going to have to clear our own way from here on in.”

“You’re insane. There’s too many of them,” she argued.

Grudgingly he reached in his jacket and tossed something to her. She caught it unthinkingly. Her lightsaber. “You’re not getting in the cruiser with it.”

“I don’t want to end up in your kriffing cruiser,” she snapped, clutching her weapon tightly. “I’m fine with making my own way after Lessu.”

“That’s not up to you anymore. I have a feeling the commander’s going to want to make your acquaintance.” 

Mara narrowed her eyes at him. They’d see about that.

He waved a hand. “All of it’s moot if we don’t get on that shuttle. There’s only more of those things coming.”

Mara looked over at the mass of creatures. Kark it all.

“Go, go, go!” Katarn shouted and they ran forward to them 

There weren’t ten or so like Mara had thought.

There were many more.

She threw herself into dizzying motion, thinking _I'm going to kriffing live through this shavit too_ as she whirled, slashing through a pincer, sidestepping away from mandibles to hack them off, pushing the creature's head from her blade with her foot, then sweeping her blade through another with enough momentum to bisect its head. _Just you try and stop me, sith-kriffing insects._ From a distance she heard Katarn's repeater rifle keep up a near constant barrage of fire.

She'd lopped another creature's head off when she saw two creatures converging on him. Repeater rifles were terrible close contact weapons, she though as he frantically avoided the four pincers jabbing at him from all sides.

Mara broke into a run toward him, seeing the next moments happen almost in slow motion.

In evading the pincer of the creature closest to Mara, the other slashed at Katarn’s feet, sending him sprawling back. 

A pincer stabbed down.

Katarn screamed.

Mara was already sliding down across the snow, her blade up, cutting clear through chitin, sticky liquid gushing down. Slicing through the hard tissue had slowed her down, and she hacked through the rest through sheer force of will, rolling away to prevent the front half of the creature’s body from falling on her.

She gasped over the violent throbbing in her shoulder, but pushed herself to where Katarn lay, He chopped at a pincer as thick as a grappling cable, pieces of chitin like shards of black crystal on the snow. The pincer was stuck clean through the center of his palm.

Mara slashed through the pincer with her lightsaber. “Probably best if you leave it in.”

He got up with a grunt -- well, his leg sent him back down and he swore. For a second he and Mara looked at each other. 

Mara let out a deep sigh. “You karked up your leg? Fantastic. Let's get on with this.” She crouched down, offering her shoulder. She’d learned a lot at Selab about trade.

“Don't think I'm not going to take that glowstick away from you,” Katarn muttered, slinging his arm over her shoulder to hoist himself up, Mara biting back a scream from the pulse of pain at her shoulder.

Mara laughed snidely even as she strained under his weight, her shoulder throbbing. She was shivering, but hissed out. “How? T-tripping me? B-biting my ankles?”

He flashed her a derisive smile. “No. I'll tell you what I’m gonna do. I'm gonna take that glowstick from you and take out that power cell. It won’t even be hard. You're sloppy. 

“Maybe,” she grunted out, jostling him a little more that necessary, “not the best strategy to insult someone carrying you to safety.”

“ISB? No. You were better trained than that. Once. Maybe.”

They'd gotten to the shuttle's hatchway. Katarn gave Mara the code and she dropped him on the snow roughly enough to make him grunt as she input the code he called to her. She returned to haul him up just as roughly, biting back another yelp from her shoulder's throbbing. The hatchway opened and a female Twi’lek with green skin stumbled out to meet them. A few seconds later the ramp closed behind them.

“Miksval,” Katarn gasped when she turned to face them, the Twi’lek’s haphazard bandaging covered her flightsuit, red seeping through them all over her shoulders and arm.

“Looks worse...than it is,” she mumbled.

Mara flashed Katarn a look. It looked...really bad.

“Got me while I was checking the thrusters.” The Twi’lek laughed, swaying a little, staring at Katarn’s hand with the pincer still stuck through it, then his leg which Mara noticed was in an unnatural angle. Broken probably. “Got you too, looks like.” Her eye passed over Mara as her hand scrambled for a hold on the bulkhead to prop herself up. “You the survivor?”

Mara grimaced.

But “Good,” was all the Twi’lek said, her head drooping. “Didn't think there'd be anyone left with those things.” She seemed to straighten herself up enough to look past them. “Where's Duar?”

Katarn shook his head.

“Oh.” Her face squeezed, sorrow washing across it. 

He drew the cube from his pocket. 

A bit of hope seeped through the Twi’lek’s face. “Sirat?” she said in a small voice.

Katarn nodded and put it away, the Twi’lek gave him a wavery smile. 

She blew out a breath. “She'll be happy.” 

Mara was about to ask them to hurry when she saw something wriggling under the dressing on Miksval's arm. 

“Miksval,” Katarn called as Mara raised a hand towards it. “What--”

Miksval looked down, eyes widening as a glistening black worm slithered from under of the bandage around her shoulder. Her hands scrabbled for it tossing it at her feet, crying out when her bandages became a rippling surface.

“Shavit! They're all over me! They're all over me!” She fell to the ground, thrashing and clawing at herself. “They're in me!” 

Mara shot forward, stepping on the worm. Another glinted black against the durasteel floor and she stomped on it too. What the kriff were those things? With a splat, a third one landed wriggling on the floor, inches from where Miksval was writhing and shrieking, then another and another. Mara stomping on them, until one strident _pew_ of blaster fire made her freeze.

Silence.

Mara snapped her head towards Miksval’s prone figure. Katarn was standing in front of her, a lost look on his face. Professional detachment replaced it a second later. He opened his mouth.

A hard bang shook the ground. 

“We have to get out of here.” Katarn limped to where a basic camouflage sheet was, then came back, his wounded leg dragging behind him, to cover his comrade. “And we can't leave those here.” He gestured to the wriggling insects. Mara strode towards him, leaning over to help him adjust the sheet over Miksval. “I don’t know what the kriff those things are.”

Bang.

“I'll check the seals.” Mara glanced at the slithering worms, then scanned the space for the nearest access console. “We can airlock everything.”

Katarn paused, his gaze sliding down to Miksval under the sheet. He nodded and was about to turn to the cockpit when Mara said, “Wait.”

He stopped.

“We shouldn't let any piece of those things remain stuck in you.”

Bang.

His face was drawn. “Hurry.”

Mara approached, grasped the remaining part of the pincer, lay a hand on his shoulder and gave it a hard yank. It came loose as Katarn let out a pained hiss, blood burbling out of the gaping wound.

Mara made a face. “You're gonna need--”

Bang.

“Medkit. In the cockpit. Finish up here. I might need an extra pair of hands as we get up.” He dragged himself to the main access hatch.

\--

The banging had gotten rhythmic and near constant in the few minutes it took Mara to ready the airlock. She dashed into the cockpit and took the copilot's seat just as Katarn was powering up the repulsorlifts. They gave a giving a sharp winding sound when he flipped the switch.

“That doesn’t sound so great,” she blurted out.

Katarn didn’t look up from the instruments, his wounded hand hastily bandaged, red still seeping through. “Miksval said she got it working. It’s working.”

The repulsorlifts kept whining. Before them on the viewscreen the lights illuminated a sea of black spidery figures.

“Hate those kriffing things,” she muttered.

Katarn flicked the repulsorlifts’ switch again.

A jolt went through the cockpit, and the repulsorlifts came on, the shuttle rising somewhat shakily off its skids, the sensor screen before Katarn showing its wings dropping as it did. Regardless, the wind tunnel created in the canyon made the whole shuttle shudder as it lifted.

Mara’s lips tightened. “We need more power for the compensators against the wi--”

“Can't divert from shields.”

“We have to--” The shuttle slammed into the canyon's side, yanking Mara hard against her crashwebbing. Katarn swore. Power lights blinked in the display. The shuttle plunged down. Mara’s stomach flipped as it did, before the shuttle shot up and slammed against the other side of the canyon. Mara’s crashwebbing dug into her skin enough that she knew she was picking up bruises. 

“Nice kriffing flying!” she wheezed at Katarn with a scowl. 

He was busy hauling back on the stick. A few more collisions and the shuttle finally ascended like it was spat out from the canyon and rolled, buffeted by the massive gale-force winds that pounded on the shuttle’s hull. The cockpit was engulfed in screaming alarms, the display a mass of blinking red. 

“Coming up on the mountain range!” Mara yelled over the racket. “Pull her up!”

“I’m kriffing trying!”

Mara leaned forward, hitting several switches.

“--the kriff are you doing?” 

“Routing all power to the engines! We’re going to end up in a paste if we don’t get more altitude--”

“We can’t take another impact without shields--”

They swerved in time to avoid the snowy edge of a peak. An updraft sent them up, the little visibility they had diminishing. More winds threw them about, the shuttle still arbitrarily plummeting or leaping depending on air pockets. 

Mara looked at the ucheri scramble that was their current course on the nav. “We’re barely keeping to the coordinates! And the weather doesn’t look any nicer! We’ll be lucky if we can crash at Lessu!”

“Take the ship!” Katarn ordered and Mara cursed as the pilot’s interface came on her screen. “Don’t get us killed!” He hit the comm switch while Mara wrestled with the stick, the shuttle lurching and bucking. 

“Shuttle Atleya to New Republic Cruiser Concordia,” Katarn called on the comm. “Having a little trouble with our engines. Request recovery by tractor. Repeat. This is Shuttle Atleya to New Republic Cruiser Concordia. Request recovery by tractor. Come in Concordia.” To Mara he barked, “We’re coming in too hot, decrease--”

“No, the engines are flagging too much! Like asking the wind to slam us down!”

“The tractor beam will have a hard time locking--”

“We don’t even know if they heard us!”

“Slow the kriff down!” He shifted to her control panel, extending a hand over a few levers.

The shuttle took a steep dive. 

She pulled back on the stick, but without the engines they were diving. “You kriffing hawkbat-brained piece of --”

Katarn full on laughed at her. They were plummeting down Ryloth’s atmosphere and the sithkriffer was _laughing_ at her.

“I’ll see you in karking hell!” she spat at him, bracing herself for impact.

The shuttle stopped, the crashwebbing once again digging hard into her skin. When it started moving again it did so in a smoother course.

“Concordia here,” a voice came through the channel. “We got you. Everyone okay? How'd the rescue go?” 

Mara could only shoot death glares at Katarn, who was now more solemn. “We see that. Thanks. We’ll talk more once we get in. It was...complicated.”

“Medical personnel necessary?” the voice through the comm inquired.

“Not right now.”

The voice on the line sounded more concerned. “Okay. I’ll meet you for a debrief, Kyle.”

Mara started a bit at all the informality.

“Yeah, we’ll talk soon. Atleya out.”

But she was hardly happy with the state of things. “What the kriff was that stunt?” Mara snarled at Katarn as soon as he’d switched off the comm. “Nevermind. I saved your life. You can tell your commander to drop me off at Lessu.”

“It wasn’t a stunt. The commander has a...knack for these things. Probably sensed us from a ways off. It’s still polite to decelerate.”

“I don't care,” Mara spat. “Lessu.”

“You can wait to ask him yourself.”

“Sithkriffer,” she seethed. “I should have left you to karking die.” The shuttle emerged from the sandy clouds, moving towards a midsize cruiser. 

Katarn opted not to reply and she added, “What the hell are Rebels doing in Ryloth now anyway?”

“There’s always been Rebels in Ryloth.” 

Mara shot him a glare. 

“Technically, not Rebels anymore.” Katarn checked over the sensor readings. “New government.” He looked on as the towering mountain of Lessu went past them. “We’re overseeing the transfer of authority from the Imperial apparatus to their clan-based planetary assembly.”

Mara made a face. “So Ryloth joined what was it? Your New Republic?”

He shook his head. “Actually no. Ryloth decided it’s going to do its own thing for a while.”

She scoffed. “You’re all just going to let it?”

Katarn looked at her oddly. “None of our business what the planet decides for itself.” 

Whatever. “What are you going to tell your commander about me?” she asked.

“Hoping I won’t have to tell him anything. Going to get patched up. Maybe take a nap.”

Mara squeezed her eyes shut. Well, she was out of the Cage. She could make a break for it, grab some sort of small ship. The thought itself sent a wave of exhaustion through her. Without the rush of adrenaline, her her limbs already felt heavy and achy. 

“If you think someone’s going to put you back in a hole,” Katarn turned towards her. “You’re wrong. The New Republic doesn’t work that way.”

She had believed the Empire worked differently too, Mara thought, looking away.

Katarn fiddled with the bandage on his hand. “There’s too much work to do for that eye for an eye shavit." He leaned forward and input commands for several diagnostics. "We’re thin as it is. The commander shouldn’t even _be_ here.”

Mara didn’t reply. Cruiser came up on their viewscreen, the elegant curving lines that were the hallmark of Mon Calamari engineering. Soon they were set down on the hangar. Katarn stood as soon as their landing sequence was done and almost fell. With a reluctant huff, Mara went over to him.

“You were offered medical assistance, karking idiot,” she said with a pained wince. Her blasted shoulder.

“I don’t need it. Not right away anyway.”

She rolled her eyes but took his weight as they went down the ramp, the ground crew calling out their greetings.

“Skywalker’s on the bridge handling a comm,” one of the techs, a furry Gotal called. “Need help getting up there?”

“Nah,” Katarn waved it off. “It’s just a ‘lift away.” He pointed Mara the way.

Once they were inside, he went to press the button, and with a wet smack something fell to the floor. 

A glistening black worm. Mara instinctively brought her boot down over it.

She looked up to meet Katarn’s eyes. “Wait,” he gasped, “I can handle--”

But Mara was already stomping at his wounded leg, and grabbing his head as he went down. She slammed his face into her knee. He sagged. 

Another worm had wriggled out of the bandage. 

Mara breathed in to focus as she hit the emergency stop button on the turbolift and crushed the worm that had crawled out under her heel. The Twi’lek -- she’d had multiple wounds. Katarn only had one. _The_ one. In his hand. 

Her fingers scrambled across her clothes for the lightsaber. It wasn’t there and she almost screamed. She couldn’t have dropped it. Another worm crawled out and she went for Katarn’s clothes, relief bright when her hands found it. _He’d karking lifted it off her -- probably while they covered the dead pilot--_

Mara hit the activator switch. Nothing happened. She hit the switch again. 

Nothing.

She really screamed then, and threw the lightsaber across the ‘lift, hearing it clang. The fucking power cell! That sithkriffer was going to get _everyone_ killed. She dug around her tool belt as another worm slid out from under the bandage. Finally her hands happened on her handheld ice saw. 

It wouldn’t cauterize like a lightsaber. 

Karking his fault anyway. Mara started on the tourniquet.

\--

Katarn woke up as the ice saw began shredding through skin, started his screaming and thrashing as she started cleaving down to the first bone, which slowed down her progress somewhat. Good thing Mara had made sure to space tape his ankles. She’d put him onto his stomach, his good hand trapped under his torso, Mara sitting on his back to work. With no leverage to get her off, all he could do was scream and thrash uselessly.

Mara leaned, putting her more of her weight on the saw to get it to crunch through the second bone. By then Katarn had passed out again. The lift actually _started moving_ , with a jerk and Mara ground down the handsaw with her full weight, ignoring the blood splattering everywhere. Those fucking worms might be an infestation. An infestation that could spread, kill him, her, and everyone else on this kriffing ship. That hand was coming the kriff off.

She sliced through the remaining bone and the rest of the sinew.

The turbolift opened with a ding. 

“Hold your fire!” A voice ordered. 

The voice from the comm Mara thought. A blaster bolt whizzed past her head, sparks raining down on her as she shifted off Katarn and rose to her feet, looking past the open doors of the ‘lift.

A lightsaber dangled from a sandy-haired man’s silvery belt. The commander? He didn’t look much older than her, but he was wearing a white officer’s shipsuit and projected an air of authority. There was another officer beside him in a darker uniform, blaster in hand. The man with the lightsaber’s hand was extended, pushing the man’s blaster off target. Behind them a group of people was beginning to gather, blasters aimed.

Her eyes flickered down her yellow coverall, and she thought maybe she would have shot at her too. The sleeve of it ripped -- she'd used it to make the tourniquet -- and splattered with ichor and blood, her hair a disheveled knotted mess, half out of her braid. Her face too, she imagined, had several layers of crusted insect ichor, blood and grime. 

She registered that she was still holding Katarn’s amputated hand and flung it away in disgust. 

The bloody hand landed at the feet of the commander with a wet splat. The officer beside him skittered back as another worm crawled out of the bandage, while the commander ground the tip of his boot down on the insect. Recovered, the man next to him opened fire on the hand until it was a charred, barely recognizable husk and scrambled for his comm.

“Medical!” the officer bellowed into it. “We have a situation!”

The commander’s gaze had shifted and Mara glanced back. Her lightsaber lay on the ground a few paces away from her. When she looked back, he was staring straight at her. 

Farce of a rescue, she thought over a burst of nervousness. She knew exactly what that lightsaber meant, but she'd learned a lot about trading favors at Selab.

Mara raised her chin. 

"I just saved your man's life," she told the commander. "I want off this rock."

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts tackled were bloody hands, moon cycles, and cage. Ahem, all handled (ahahahaha) in quite a...liberal manner.


End file.
